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Date/Era: April-May 1906
Size: Original photo approx. 9 ½” by 7 ¼” plus cardboard mount
Photographer: R.J. Waters & Co.
Color: Sepia
What type: Gelatin Silver
Content:This is an amazing photo taken by famous photographer R.J Waters & Co., shortly after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The photo shows a refugee camp in Golden Gate Park. You see the long rows of tents with washing, clothing, and some household articles in the picture. It is a stunning reminder of the effects of the devastating earthquake.
Photographer: RJ Waters was born in Virginia City, NV and worked out of Gold Hill, NV until his move to San Francisco. His outdoor views of Tahoe, Gold Hill, Virginia City and the Sierras ranked him among the best photographers of his time. After the 1906 disaster that destroyed much of San Francisco, the California Insurance Company made the unusual decision to cover losses from the earthquake, even though it was not obligated to. It was the only insurance company that did this. Besides providing an important kick-start to the rebuilding effort, this gesture brought new customers. To emphasize their important contribution to the rebuilding of San Francisco, the insurance company commissioned a photographer, R.J. Waters & Co., to make a large panorama photograph of San Francisco on April 22, 1906 He became well known for his photos of the SF quake and did some innovative work for the Pan Pacific Exposition in 1915 by launching a camera in a balloon contraption to get the first \"aerial photos\" of the exposition.
Condition:Some smudging on the verso, and what appears to be a hole, upper center, but does not show through to the front of the photograph. Front of photograph is in excellent shape, with some fading around the edges.
More info/Bio/Notes: The 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on April 18 with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.8 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). Severe shaking was felt from Eureka on the North Coast to the Salinas Valley, an agricultural region to the south of the San Francisco Bay Area. Devastating fires soon broke out in the city and lasted for several days. As a result, about 3,000 people died and over 80% of the city of San Francisco was destroyed. The events are remembered as one of the worst and deadliest natural disasters in the history of the United States. The death toll remains the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California\'s history and high in the lists of American urban disasters.
A strong foreshock preceded the main shock by about 20 to 25 seconds. The strong shaking of the main shock lasted about 42 seconds. There were decades of minor earthquakes – more than at any other time in the historical record for northern California – before the 1906 quake. Widely interpreted previously as precursory activity to the 1906 earthquake, they have been found to have a strong seasonal pattern and have been postulated to be due to large seasonal sediment loads in coastal bays that overlie faults as a result of the erosion caused by hydraulic mining in the later years of the California Gold Rush.
Property losses from the disaster have been estimated to be more than $400 million. An insurance industry source tallies insured losses at $235 million, the equivalent to $6.19 billion in 2015 dollars.
Political and business leaders strongly downplayed the effects of the earthquake, fearing loss of outside investment in the city which badly needed to rebuild.[39] In his first public statement, California governor George Pardee emphasized the need to rebuild quickly: \"This is not the first time that San Francisco has been destroyed by fire, I have not the slightest doubt that the City by the Golden Gate will be speedily rebuilt, and will, almost before we know it, resume her former great activity\".[40] The earthquake itself is not even mentioned in the statement. Fatality and monetary damage estimates were manipulated.
Almost immediately after the quake (and even during the disaster), planning and reconstruction plans were hatched to quickly rebuild the city. Rebuilding funds were immediately tied up by the fact that virtually all the major banks had been sites of the conflagration, requiring a lengthy wait of seven-to-ten days before their fire-proof vaults could cool sufficiently to be safely opened. The Bank of Italy had evacuated its funds and was able to provide liquidity in the immediate aftermath. Its president also immediately chartered and financed the sending of two ships to return with shiploads of lumber from Washington and Oregon mills which provided the initial reconstruction materials and surge. In 1929, Bank of Italy was renamed and is now known as Bank of America.
Item Number: R120
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